The Top 10 Ways to Market Your Talents Shamelessly

If you’re like me – you hate hype. You hate slick anything. You hate pressure and pushing.

And yet – you’ve got something valuable to offer.

This is the quandry of many a hippie in business. The need to market – and yet the shame surrounding the marketing.

Here’s a provocative question that Thomas Leonard invites us to ask – ‘what if we took the shame out of marketing?‘

What does it look like to market your talents shamelessly? No one I ever knew could speak to this better than Thomas. What follows are brilliant notions on marketing.

Market shamelessly?

How can this be at all related to Attraction? Good question! Attraction is not a passive process as some might assume. It is very much an active process — planting seeds, adding value, telling (vs selling), responding and yes, even marketing. In this Top 10 List, you’ll learn how to market yourself in a very attractive way, because you’ll feel incredibly attractive as you market yourself.

1. Know what it is exactly that you provide/deliver to others.

Do you know what you offer to others? If you’re a physician, for example, do you offer relief from suffering? Wellness? Referrals? Diagnostic services? Stern lectures about smoking? Medicines? Preventive care?

All of the above, perhaps. But how do you share this with your patients in a way that they can remember it and benefit from it? Work on the exact description of what you offer and you’ll never hesitate to share it with anyone at any time. And you’ll smile while you’re sharing it because you believe in it so much.

The phrasing makes it even more real for you and the client. It becomes a meme.

2. Make it impossible for potential buyers not to buy or leave with something.

What if you decided to provide some service or product to everyone who expressed some interest in what you offer? Take Coach University for example. Don’t want to plunk down $2995 for 2 years of training to be a coach? How about a 3 month course on Attraction for $295? Still too much of a commitment? How about a LazerPhrazing tape set for $59? Still not ready? No problem! Let’s get you signed up for a free TeleClass so you can learn the basics of coaching for 4 weeks at no charge at all.

Too busy, you say? Then, how about a free subscription to the DailyCoach, where you’ll learn a bit about coaching every day for as long as you want, no charge. See the point here? If they come near you, make it impossible for them to say no to something you feel good about providing them, whether they buy your premier product/service or not.

In many cases, they will upgrade when they are ready — requiring absolutely no effort on your part. Just make sure that you have something to offer everyone who may come calling on you for help.

3. Feel incredibly proud of what you do and what you offer.

I was a Certified Financial Planner and I didn’t do very well at it financially.

Why?

Because I didn’t believe in what I was doing. I was primarily a product salesman/stock broker. Nothing is wrong with that, but I wasn’t excited about it; I wasn’t proud enough of it to tell the world. So, I tried to fake the enthusiasm for it and I barely got by. (Of course, it led me to coaching, which I became VERY proud of because I enjoyed doing it and I saw that by direct efforts, my clients measurably and consistently benefited, at almost no risk to them.)

If you don’t totally love what you do, are not proud of exactly how you do it or don’t feel good enough to tell the world about it, it’s going to be difficult to be very attractive. Either you need to change jobs/occupations/employers, or you’ll need to master your craft until you do.

4. Become a model of what you’re selling.

If you’re a marketing expert and your brochure is a dud, you’re not going to be very attractive. If you’re a coach and your life’s not up to snuff, who’s going to hire you without a hardsell? This point is probably obvious, but the more you have personally benefited from what it is that you offer to others, the better brochure you will become! Printing not required.

5. Perfect, or customize, what you’re selling so that it fits perfectly for you.

In another one of the Attraction Principles, I talk about the value in customizing what you offer so that it can fit for more than just a single set of clients. But this is a bit different than that. Here, I am suggesting that you perfect or customize what you do so that it’s a better expression of your talents — a better fit for you.

You see this happening a lot in most professions. The MD who learns chiropractic and becomes a much more thorough healer. The PhD psychologist who becomes a coach and can better diagnose and accelerate their clients’ progress. And, in addition to the synthesis of professions, you can also take a product or service and customize it around a special talent you have. And we all have them.

6. Know what you want people to do, tell them to do it and show them how.

Forgive me for saying this, but people need, and benefit greatly from, direction. There are so many choices out there, it’s overwhelming for most. And none of us had Goal Selection 101 in high school. And if you did, I want to know about it! The point is that, for better or worse, people (clients, prospective clients) respond to direction, whether during the selling process or when using the product itself.

Don’t be afraid to tell people what to do! It’s a huge way to add value. And the few who don’t want help will let you know. If you feel the buyer should buy your product or service and you feel good about selling it them, don’t take no for an answer.

7. Show customers how to sell for you.

I almost never ask my clients or customers to refer their friends or associates to me. But they do. A lot. Why? Because I show them how to sell for me, without being blunt about it.

And so can you.

What I often do is tell very quick stories about what some of my clients have gone through and how I advised them. I don’t talk about the client, nor do I talk about the client’s situation, because that would be against the ethics of confidentiality. Rather, I describe the feelings and spaces my clients had to move through.

This strikes a chord with almost any listener and credibility is established. Plus, the person I’m sharing this with (usually a client), now knows who else they can refer to me! (I don’t mean to make this sound devious; I only share the stories as a way to educate my client on themselves. But it does have a nice ‘byproduct bonus!’)

8. Make certain the client knows all of the value they are receiving.

My clients, as well informed as they are about what we’re doing together and the value they are receiving, still only understand about 30% of the value that they are getting. (But, hey, I’m working on it!) I want clients to really feel/see/understand 100% of how what we’re doing together is benefiting them today, next month, next year and next lifetime.

Not because I need the kudos, but because then they’ll take our work that much more seriously. (I’m so altruistic…) One of the ways that I lock in the value is to say something like….”The reason X is so important right now, John, is that…..”…or….”What you did right here, Jane, was called a ……”. See how this works?

9. Always have a comeback for those who doubt or criticize you.

You may not need to have a collection of comebacks, but I do. Having these in my quiver gives me the extra confidence to market shamelessly. If someone thinks that coaching is a sham, I say, “Hmm, why do you think then that every single gold medalist credits their coach for the win?” Or, that coaching is a luxury or only for Californians. I say, “Yes, coaching is worthless for those who don’t want much out of life.” (Meow.) Or, that my fees are too high. I say, respectfully this time, looking innocent and inquisitive, “Have you no goal worth that much?” (Double meow.) I almost never have to use these, but they are available, and that is emotionally helpful.

10. Develop a Capillary System to sell, screen and filter for you.

I think if I had my way, my Capillary System would handle every part of the sales/buying process so all I had to do was to do my coaching, at $400 an hour. I spend zero time selling my services, but I do spend the equivalent of 10% of my billable time feeding my Capillary System pipeline.

I have about 25,000 daily subscribers to various newsletters, I teach several free TeleClasses each month on subjects that I find interesting or need to develop further (so, it’s really R&D time, not selling), and I add to several dozen web sites with various foci. The point is, I refuse to sell.

Not interested.

But I am interested in providing value for all who want it and so I use a Capillary System as a way to nourish and attract others. By the time they reach me and e-mail or call me, they’re ready to hire me or buy something. I don’t mean this to sound cold.

But isn’t this a better way to build a business than becoming an expert at cold calls or networking? And one of the benefits of having a strong Capillary System is that I add so much value to so many people that I don’t feel badly/weird/hesitant about charging a fairly high fee. I know the client will get at least ten times the financial value-equivalent from our time together. Because by the time they’ve come through the Capillary System, they are ready to.

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